Veolia Touts Recycling Success of Eiffel Tower Renovation

With the iconic Paris tower's first floor renovation completed, most of the coverage and commentary has focused on its new glass floor.

Oct 10, 2014

With the iconic Eiffel Tower's first floor renovation completed, most of the coverage and commentary has focused on its new glass floor. But not all.

Veolia announced Oct. 10 that the renovation of the Paris tower's first floor was completed with 250 tons of waste produced during the two and a half years of work, and Veolia has recycled 83 percent of that waste.

To accomplish this, Veolia had to install safety measures, collecting the waste between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m., before the tower opens to the public, and then transporting it to sorting centers. The waste was brought down to ground level using a platform that measures 1,722 square feet (160 square meters) with a nine-ton capacity.

"Once it has been received at the sorting centers, the material is isolated. Then the wood is crushed, the plastic compressed, and the rubble sorted according to its quality," said Dominique Bar, sorting and recycling manager at Veolia Ile-de-France.